101rvk

The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 6 — 2013
Precession Of Hipsters
Atli Bollason is a professional bohemian.
10
MAY
NEWS IN BRIEF
– Continued –
cover most of the costs of care. The
agreement is being implemented
in stages over the course of the
year, starting with the most atrisk-for-cavities
age group—15
to 17—what with all the nammi and
Coke they consume.
The ever-growing number
of tourists has brought
economic prosperity and a
whole lot of fun or dullness to
town, depending on who you
ask. But what is the new face of
Reykjavík doing to the hipster in
the mirror
The number of tourists
in Iceland has grown by
110% since 2003. And the
summer of 2013 is sure
to break all records; so
far, the year has seen a
45.5% increase compared
to 2012—if the trend
continues we’ll break
the 900,000 tourist-wall
only seven years after
we broke the 400,000 one.
This is apparent to anyone
who spends time downtown:
whole families clad in Gore-
Tex from head to toe, euro-hippie
couples with backpacks, psychedelic
head scarves and frowzy
beards, and packs of young stock brokers
with thousands of dollars to burn on
drugs and alcohol grace the streets of 101
Reykjavík like never before. Moreover, they do
so all year round, even in November and February.
Why do these people come here For nature,
primarily, but secondarily for something
we could term the Reykjavík hip scene (I’m using
‘hip’ and ‘hipster’ here in a non-derogatory
fashion, loosely denoting a young and stylish
crowd that likes art, loves parties and doesn’t
seem to worry too much about things like politics
and money). They have heard about the
long and rowdy Reykjavík bar-nights, they have
read something positive about our art and music
somewhere and now they want to experience
it first-hand.
WE ARE SELF-
CONSCIOUS
At this point, the hipsters of Reykjavík know
very well how they have been presented to the
outside world. Journalists from fancy magazines
have come here, perceived us as a bit
wacky, quite uninhibited, extremely creative,
and waxed poetic about it all to readers across
the world. There exists, now, a somewhat approved
image of the Icelandic hipster. The result
We are self-conscious.
See, there is some sort of gold rush happening
in town; new hostels and hotels and
tour offices and tourist-what-have-yous seem
to open every week. And perhaps this mentality
has seeped into our behavioural systems.
More and more, it seems like we are playing a
role. We act and dress as if Laugavegur were
Bedford Avenue. We throw countless afterparties
for anyone and everyone. We feel obliged
to show tourists a splendid time in the proper,
prescribed fashion. In other words, we put on
a show, the very show that tourists have paid
good money to come and see. The scene feels
eerily like a stage these days.
Illustration: Lóa Hjálmtýsdóttir
WE ARE THE
SIMULACRA
I was going to try not to evoke
this term, but it seems like ol’
Baudrillard pretty much nailed
what’s going on with his concept
of the simulacra: We are copies of
an original that doesn’t exist anymore—it
probably never existed
outside the minds of partying media
representatives high on Sigur
Rós’ golden whale tears—proliferating
points on the Borgesian
map.
So far, we’re doing a very
good job and everybody just
seems to be enjoying themselves.
The trade-off is fair
enough: Just play the role and the
tourists will smile. You don’t really
make a profit (a beer or two, a joint
perhaps) but making someone smile
is always worth it; hell—you might
make a friend for life. One cannot help but
wonder though if with time this new identity
will take on a life of its own, one separate
from our ‘true selves,’ but still stick—like a mask
super-glued to your face.
WE ARE ON
THE SCENE
Of course, upon closer inspection you realise
this is only postmodern business as usual.
‘Scene’ literally means ‘stage’ goddammit, so
being ‘on the scene’ means being on stage. So
maybe what I’m describing is only the stale core
of the hipster debate itself: Those who ‘play the
role’ are non-hip ‘hipsters’ and those who don’t
give a shit and are ‘authentic’ are plain cool.
But this distinction is false and impossible to
gauge. Moreover, such a view prioritises the
‘real,’ the ‘natural,’ the ‘authentic,’ the ‘organic,’
the ‘original’—it imposes a hierarchy I’ve never
understood because fake can be just as good.
Sometimes it’s better.
All of which is to say that while this may be
happening, I’m not afraid. I don’t think playing
this game is a symptom of us consciously or
unconsciously heeding the market’s desires. I
don’t even think it signifies a watering-down of
the true coolness that gave us our rep to begin
with. Rather, I think we didn’t quite recognise
ourselves in the pink gleam of the media-mirror—who
were all those awesome, crazy, artistic
and friendly people anyway—and just
wanted to look a bit more like them.
Breast health was also a hot topic
after CEO and co-founder of de-
CODE genetics Inc. Kári Stefánssson
announced that his company
has coded information about 2,400
Icelanders with the breast cancer
gene, BRCA2, of which he said
about half are women with an 80%
likelihood of developing breast
cancer. He would like to inform
carriers in order for them to make
an informed health decision, while
public health authorities are resistant
to allow this due to privacy
concerns.
As the world
celebrated
May 17 as the
anniversar y
of the declassification
of
homosexuality as a psychiatric
disorder, the International Gay
& Lesbian Association published
the Rainbow Europe Package
report which ranked Iceland
in tenth place for gay and trans
rights. The scores were marked
out of 100% of which Iceland received
56%, prompting the president
of Samtökin ’78 to state that
more work is needed here for recognising
LGBTI issues and rights.
Sweden scored 66% on the same
report and proudly displayed and
supported gay rights at the annual
Eurovision song contest, with not
one but two same-sex wedding
scenarios! Iceland’s contestant
Eyþór Ingi made it into the finals
with the mother-language
power-ballad “Ég
á líf” but it proved
not to stand a
chance next to
Denmark’s panflute
infused pop
tune “Only Teardrops.”
Finally there were the American
tourists who felt it would be a wise
idea to have a picnic on the edge
of an ice sheet. As luck would
have it, the chunk of ice they were
eating on then broke off and floated
away. A rescue team was deployed
and found them calmly sitting there
as the ice floe drifted 10 metres
from the shore, seemingly oblivious
to the extreme danger they
were in. They
were safely
rescued, but
their picnic
was ruined.
The National Museum of Iceland
celebrates its 150th anniversary 2013.
Along with the permanent exhibition that features
Iceland’s history from settlement to present day the
museum will offer a variety of exhibitions during the
year, e.g. on Icelandic silver and photography.
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Opening hours:
Summer (1. May-15. September): Daily 10-17
Winter (16. September-30. April): Tuesday-Sunday 11-17
Suðurgata 41, 101 Reykjavík.
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RUB23 | Aðalstræti 2 | 101 Reykjavík | Phone: +354 553 5323 | reykjavik@rub23.is
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